Why does our voice matter?

 

That’s an interesting question. Many people will say that the reason your voice matters is because you can use it to communicate to other people and help, share and connect with them. That’s a very valid answer because it is important to connect and communicate with other beings but that’s a very obvious reason. In this essay I’m going to give you a way deeper answer to this many layered question.

 

Leo was walking to the local supermarket very discreetly to buy himself a packet of potato chips. He was listening to everything around him and hoping that no one notices him. What if they laugh at him? He thought. He reached the market just in time to see the man picking up the last packet of his favorite potato chips. He seems to need one more pack and he asks the shopkeeper. He says that he has a full stock at the back. He runs of and gets it for the man. Leo was observing all this and taking valuable information i.e.

 

1)    There are more of your favorite potato chips at the back.

2)    To get them he just has to ask the shopkeeper for it.

 

Wait. Ask the shopkeeper! As in talk to the shopkeeper! Leo were hoping that no one notices him, and here he was trying to make himself noticeable! But if I don’t, he thought, I won’t get my favorite potato chips. He musters up all the courage he has and walk up to the shopkeeper who is checking his register. Can I get the sour cream and onion potato chips? He asks slowly. He does not hear him. Leo has to speak louder in front of everyone to get heard, which can be a disaster…

 

Imagine yourself in that same situation as Leo. What would you do? Would you be shy and turn away or would you go ahead and ask him for the chips? When people talk about speaking up for yourself, they usually give bold examples such as giving a speech on a topic you feel strongly about or standing up to someone. But even these little examples are important. Everything starts little. I am sure that if Leo practices doing small stuff like this every day than one day he can do one of those big things, but it’s the small things that build up to that. Can you imagine what Leo’s thought process would have been at that moment? I think it would have been something like:

1)    What if he refuses, what would I say then?

2)    What if he does not hear me again?

3)    What if he lies and says that there are no sour cream and onion potato chips left?

4)    What if everybody starts laughing?

5)    What should I do!

 

Some of these questions/fears might seem irrational to you but they must have seemed very rational to Leo in the moment.

 Here is another place where speaking up and getting heard is very Important.

Say that you have some friends. You and your friends are talking and they are teasing/body shaming/doing anything to annoy you. What will you do? Because they are your friends will you stay quiet and hope they forget or will you put your foot down and say to them “please stop! I am not liking it!” By doing so you are conveying the message that you do not want this to continue and that you are not someone they can bully.

 Speaking up and getting heard does not always mean that you literally talk.

Take cricket for example. People play under the light of thousands of people and millions more are watching online and commenting and hurling criticism.

 Take the Indian star Virat Kohli for instance. From 2019 December to 2022 May he was in a fix. He was being dropped from the team and was kicked out of the position of the skipper and there was criticism everywhere for him. What did he do? Did he sulk and quit cricket all together? No! He stood up and hit a century in 2022 June and he made a stunning comeback for India against Pakistan in the world cup and is now back in form. He did not give a verbal statement. He let his cricket skills be the answer. Just like in the movie 83 (which is about how India won the 1983 cricket world cup against all odds) when Indian skipper Kapil Dev was told by his team manager and senior teammates that they are just writing anything about us in the newspapers. The newspaper said that India had reached to the semi finals by “a fluke”. The team told their skipper to give a statement. The skipper shakes his head and said “ in 1976 Tony Greg, the captain of England said to the West Indian team “we will make them grovel”, West Indies never gave a statement, in return, they just won the world cup twice. Our game will be our statement”.

 

That, is why I think standing/speaking up for yourself is very important.